In the photo upload and management page, you will now see a move icon on the upper left of every single photo.  By clicking and dragging the photo, you can rearrange the order in which it appears.

This new way of rearranging your photos has also been carried over to the ad template page.

Rentals Tab

See Listings with Ads at a Glance -  We now have an icon indicator to indicate if you have an existing ad for a listing.  The Post Ad icon would light up if you have an ad, and gray if you do not (see icons below).  Clicking on the icon would still perform the same action.

-> listing does not have an ad

-> listing that has an ad

Search for Listings with Ads - In the rentals search section, there is now a check box next to the “Photos Only” check box, that if checked will search for only listings with ads.

Advertisement Tab

The Advertisements has been redesigned allowing you to reorder your ads.  You can now click and drag an ad up and down to change its order.

We have removed some of the functionalities in the Advertisement tab to simplify the interface, since they can now be easier performed in the Rentals tab.

We hope you like the adjustments and feature improvements that we have made.  If you have an idea and would like us to consider it, please click on the Support link on the upper right of your account and then click on the “Give feedback” button to send us your thoughts.

Steps are for the traditional layout and not the new Timeline layout.

1. Log into your Facebook account.
2. Visit https://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?api_key=190322544333196
3. Click on the “Add Static HTML to a Page” button.
4. Select your page and click the “Add Static HTML: iframe tabs” button.
5. On your own Facebook page left column, you will now see a white star in grey box icon with the word “Welcome”.  Go ahead and click on it.
6. Now go to your YGL account and navigate to the website tab.
7. On this page, you want to click on the Listing Search tab and copy the text in the “Personal” or “Office Widget Integration HTML Code” box.  (You might not have access to the office widget, depending on your account privilege.)
8. Return to the Facebook page that you were on in Step 6 and paste the text into the first box and click on the “Save and viewtab…” button.
9. Listings are now added to your Facebook page.  You can click on the “preview” button to review it.

Additional Tweaks:

1. Rename the “Welcome” tab on the left of the page. – To change name of your tab, click “Edit Info” when you are on your page to bring up the admin settings. Select “Apps” from the left sidebar. Then under the Static HTML app (look for the star icon) click “Edit Settings.” There will be an option to type in a custom name for your tab there.
2. Re-sizing and customizing your widget – Ideal width for the widget is 420 and height at 2200.  You can make this change on the page that you were copying the code from in your YGL account.  You will also see other options that are available.

Due to our recent architecture restructuring, the older versions of our Android is no longer functional.  Please update to the new version at your earliest convenience.  We also want to apologize for the instability with the phone apps recently, the new version fixes these issues.

Lastly, we also want to give you an update on our iPhone app.  A new updated version is under review.  It will be available as soon as it passes the Apple App Review process.

Our Team Has Grown

We’ve added 3 full-time developers and 1 QA to our core team.  Our core development team doubled in size, and we have been busy getting everyone up to speed, and putting in some necessary procedures.  The good news is that most of them are up to speed, and already making contributions.

Site Redesign & Infrastructure Improvements

When YGL first got started, there were only two of us, and Gordon developed the initial system.  As we grew, often times we had to add features and customizations to YGL quickly.  Some things weren’t built the optimal way (there wasn’t enough time or we didn’t know better).  Those things gradually pile up and cause system instability.

We took the opportunity to redesign the  interface, improve our infrastructure and clean up legacy code.  Not only has the interface changed.  Under the hood, everything has been combed over, cleaned and updated multiple times.  These necessary infrastructure improvements will enable us to move faster and continuously bring you more value in the future.

Experimentations

We’ll also been experimenting with some innovative features.  We want to make sure that before we invest heavily into a new feature or toolset, it is something that  you need.  Among these experimentations, we tried turn-key websites, lead generation and even a new way of submitting ads to Craigslist.  We are glad to say that we’ve learned a ton, and will utilize what we learned to make many future improvements.

What’s In the Near Future?

Stability – Two members of our team are continuously making infrastructure improvements, building monitoring tools and reports to make YGL more stable and faster.   Our QA is also building a comprehensive test plan, which will reduce the bugs in our system as we create new features and improve existing ones.

Better Websites – We have moved all personal sites to Speedhatch, and we are working with them consistently to bring you the best turn key website solution.  There will be many improvements coming.

Stable Phone Apps – New, improved versions of our Android and iPhone apps are almost ready for deployment.  The new version will feature much improved stability.

Improved Ad Posting – There have been many recent changes with Craigslist.  We have been busy working with our partners to figure out these changes, and help you adapt to them.  We will be improving our ad posting process significantly.

The Surprise – YGL was the first to introduce and pioneer the Realtime listing sharing, which was a game changer that even our competitors are copying.  Now, we are actively working on something new which we believe will be a game changer once again.  Stay tuned for more info.

An apology

Lastly, we want to apologize for our recent instability.  We were moving too fast with the new team without some necessary procedures.  Rest assured, we have learned many lessons, and will make sure future changes are well tested.  Thank you for your patience.

PennyPosting Google Chrome Extension

If you have questions regarding their extension, or if you run into any issues, please contact Penny Posting directly at support@pennyposting.com.

Disclaimer: The Penny Posting Google Chrome extension is not a YGL product.  YGL does not guarantee nor provide support for this extension.

For the rest of the year, we’ll continue to make improvements based on your feedback.  Thank you!

We are happy to tell you that a new stable version of our iPhone app is finally available.  The previous two versions both had some bugs that made the app not very useful.  Those bugs have now been resolved, and the app should work as expected.  Please update your iPhone app at your earliest convenience.

We also want to tell you that we are working on a new version that allowing you to add / update / delete leads and rental listings.  It should be available soon.

Thank you for your patience.

Regards,

The YGL Team

• Rental listings notifications.  We will now notify you when rental listings become on market, off market and pending.
• Make sound and vibrate when new notifications are available.
• Make phone numbers and emails clickable in the tenant contact field.

We hope these improvements will make the app more useful.

iPhone Status Update

While our last iPhone app update fixed the crashing issue, we found another bug preventing it from working correctly.  The search available date cannot be selected properly.  We are in the middle of fixing this issue.  We will release a new update as soon as it is approved.  We are very sorry about this, we hope you understand.

While on the road, it’s difficult to stay connected to the office and your peers.  Information changes constantly.  There are new leads, listings go on/off market.  All this information could be very important to you.  Being a good agent, you probably spend most of your time outside making deals.  Getting notified about the things you care can give you an edge and make you more productive.

With the new version of our Android App, and by taking advantage of the Android notifications feature.  We can push notifications directly to your smartphone, keeping you updated on new changes to leads, listings and announcements you care about.  While we currently only have leads notification, we are actively working on adding other types of notifications.

Please remember to update your app.  Hopefully you like the new changes!  Any feedback / suggestions are greatly appreciated.